The Reading List

Took a little while to get into it because it could be too much telling over showing, as well as corny at times.

I loved getting to know Mukesh and Aleisha! But I felt like we didn’t get to know Aleisha as well as we could have. There were loose ends with her story that just get abandoned. Plus the discussions of the books felt surface level, almost like looking up CliffNotes before an English class discussion about each theme.

I did skim some paragraphs, especially in the Rebecca section, because I didn’t want to risk spoilers. I think this is one I’d recommend only if you’ve either read all the books on the list already or don’t mind having some minor spoilers! Some books don’t spoil at all and some (little women for example) would be majorly spoiled if you’ve never read the book or watched the movie.

There are a lot of characters to keep track of, and I felt like it was almost too much at times. I understand that it was probably the author’s intention to show the connection that books/reading can provide among so many different people, but it pulled me out of the main story and added to the corniness of the plot. Not to mention we can already see/understand the connection that books and reading have between Aleisha’s and Mukesh’s chapters!

This book was cozy and heartwarming. It felt funny reading a book about books, community, and libraries when I’m reading this for my book club and borrowed it from my local library! Overall it had a lot of potential but fell flat in some areas for me.